Socially Adaptive Autonomous Vehicles: Effects of Contingent Driving Behavior on Drivers' Experiences

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Yang, Chishang, Chang, Xiang, Dey, Debargha, Parush, Avi, Ju, Wendy
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Yang, Chishang
Chang, Xiang
Dey, Debargha
Parush, Avi
Ju, Wendy
author_facet Yang, Chishang
Chang, Xiang
Dey, Debargha
Parush, Avi
Ju, Wendy
contents Social scientists have argued that autonomous vehicles (AVs) need to act as effective social agents; they have to respond implicitly to other drivers' behaviors as human drivers would. In this paper, we investigate how contingent driving behavior in AVs influences human drivers' experiences. We compared three algorithmic driving models: one trained on human driving data that responds to interactions (a familiar contingent behavior) and two artificial models that intend to either always-yield or never-yield regardless of how the interaction unfolds (non-contingent behaviors). Results show a statistically significant relationship between familiar contingent behavior and positive driver experiences, reducing stress while promoting the decisive interactions that mitigate driver hesitance. The direct relationship between familiar contingency and positive experience indicates that AVs should incorporate socially familiar driving patterns through contextually-adaptive algorithms to improve the chances of successful deployment and acceptance in mixed human-AV traffic environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_17264
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Socially Adaptive Autonomous Vehicles: Effects of Contingent Driving Behavior on Drivers' Experiences
Yang, Chishang
Chang, Xiang
Dey, Debargha
Parush, Avi
Ju, Wendy
Human-Computer Interaction
Social scientists have argued that autonomous vehicles (AVs) need to act as effective social agents; they have to respond implicitly to other drivers' behaviors as human drivers would. In this paper, we investigate how contingent driving behavior in AVs influences human drivers' experiences. We compared three algorithmic driving models: one trained on human driving data that responds to interactions (a familiar contingent behavior) and two artificial models that intend to either always-yield or never-yield regardless of how the interaction unfolds (non-contingent behaviors). Results show a statistically significant relationship between familiar contingent behavior and positive driver experiences, reducing stress while promoting the decisive interactions that mitigate driver hesitance. The direct relationship between familiar contingency and positive experience indicates that AVs should incorporate socially familiar driving patterns through contextually-adaptive algorithms to improve the chances of successful deployment and acceptance in mixed human-AV traffic environments.
title Socially Adaptive Autonomous Vehicles: Effects of Contingent Driving Behavior on Drivers' Experiences
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.17264